THIS is the book I've been searching for. I was starting to worry that it would be impossible to find a book on gender politics that wasn't soaked with ideology and bias. I figured I could just read them all and find my own balance, but it was proving difficult. This book is a much-needed breath of fresh air. This was the book I needed. Exactly this book.

It's written by feminist journalist Cathy Young, who treats the subject with a balance I have yet to find anywhere. She examines all perspectives--the feminist, masculist, and conservative, and shows the ways that they're all correct, or at least make good points, and where they all go wrong. She has a great habit of always mentioning the nuance of a point in parentheses. She seems refreshingly above all the ideology that seems to drive every perspective she examines. It sometimes even made me a little ashamed of not being skeptical enough.

Probably the most important section in this book, for me, was the chapter where she addresses Warren Farrell's arguments, whom I have found frustrating because he makes amazingly fresh and insightful points, only to stretch them too far to the point of exaggeration and hyperbole, thereby losing his credibility. It was the same habit, Young pointed out, that also makes the radical feminists so annoying.

This book is not thorough, by any means. It covers the big subjects: biology, parenting, rape, domestic violence, and sexual harassment. But it's enough to make those of all ideologies of this subject see that the reality is more nuanced than they were led to believe.

Quotes Marshall Liked

“Most feminists view women as a class whose presumed interests are to be given priority and see equality as a matter of convenience: women are as tough and aggressive as men when it comes to fighting wars or fires, but frail and helpless when it comes to domestic violence; as carnal as men when it comes to sexual freedom, but innocent and victimized in any sexual conflict.”
―
Cathy Young,
Ceasefire!: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality

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